Bible Commentaries

Exodus 23:25-27 — of God. "I will send my terror before thee ..." This dreadful fear of God was most effective in bringing Israel into Canaan. It is seen in the case of Balak and the Moabites. "Moab was sore afraid of the people, because they were many" (Numbers 22:3), and again in the instance of Rahab the harlot who confessed that, "The fear of you has fallen upon all of us" (Joshua 2:9,11).

Exodus 3 overview — importance, which in their immediate and ultimate consequences, "stand alone in the world's history."[1] This chapter is the record of a truly great moment for Moses, for Israel, and for all mankind - "one of the truly significant watersheds of history."[2] The fullness of time indeed had come. The wickedness of the Canaanites had run its course, and the time for the sword of judgment to fall upon them had arrived. Israel had become mighty, prepared, and disciplined through hardship, and as Jamieson

Exodus 5:2 — Jehovah in the life of Joseph, elevating him to the throne of Egypt (as deputy), was no secret. If Pharaoh was ignorant, he was willfully ignorant. His response in denying that he knew Jehovah is very similar to that of Sennacherib's haughty response in 2 Kings 18:35.

2 Kings 7:9 — alive, and get into the city." God had fulfilled the prophecy of Elisha, but Israel's unbelieving king, instead of praising God for such a marvelous deliverance, went out of his way to deny that the wonder had even happened. "I will now show you" (2 Kings 7:12) was the king's proud, unbelieving boast, but God showed him instead.

2 Chronicles 25:14 — said, I know that God hath determined to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened unto my counsel." Ellison noted that, "Amaziah held the debased view that Jehovah was the supreme God, but yet was only one god among many gods."[2] His purpose in carrying away the gods of Edom (of whom we know nothing) was perhaps that of depriving the Edomites of any support they might have been supposed to give Edom. Amaziah's worshipping them and burning incense to them was a cardinal violation

Ezra 2:68 — and one hundred priests garments. So the priests and the Levites and some of the people, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinim, dwelt in their cities, and all Israel in their cities." "Threescore and one thousand darics of gold" (Ezra 2:69). During the years when this writer was in college, the radical critics were shouting to high heaven that, "The daric was a Greek coin that could not possibly have been current in Palestine until after the conquests of Alexander the Great. And upon

Ezra 6:11 — peoples that shall put forth their hand to alter the same, to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree; let it be done with all diligence." There are two parts of this penalty: (1) the crufixion of the offender, and (2) an invocation that the God of heaven would also execute divine justice upon him. "The extremely favorable impact of Darius' decree upon the temple project was no doubt due, in part, to the influence of Cyrus, two of whose daughters Darius had married;

Job 31:5 — spot ... etc." (Job 31:5,7). Nearly twenty times in this chapter we encounter these "if' clauses; and their significance was explained by Van Selms. "Job here appealed to the self-imprecatory oath: "God do so to me, and more also, if I ... etc. (2 Samuel 3:35)."[10] "Then let me sow, and let another eat" (Job 31:8). This is the imprecation Job invoked upon himself in case he was found to be lying. In this chapter, we may understand all of the "if" clauses as an appeal to exactly this

Psalms 2:6 — would be crucified, buried, and rise from the dead, and that there "The word of the Lord should go forth from Jerusalem." "The Messianic King now speaks, quoting the promise given to David, the father of the dynasty, through Nathan the prophet. See 2 Samuel 7:4-17."[3] Israel's King David was indeed an Old Testament type of God's only begotten Son, as indicated in the very first verse of the New Testament; "Jesus Christ the son of David the son of Abraham." One of the favorite pre-Christian

Psalms 22:9 — make me trust when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb; Thou art my God since my mother bare me. Be not far from me; for trouble is near; For there is none to help." "Thou art my God since my mother bare me" (Psalms 22:10). In a sense, this is true of all men, "But of the Holy Child, it was most true (Luke 2:40,49,52)."[8] "Trouble is near; there is none to help" (Psalms 22:11). The agony of death itself was approaching; the disciples had all forsaken him and

Leviticus 7:15 — the thanksgiving type of peace-offering had to be consumed on the day of its offering; but the most logical, it appears to us, is that suggested by Wenham, (1) either it was for the purpose of encouraging the offerer to invite others to share it, or (2) it showed that the worshipper trusted God to supply his future needs.[3] Cate thought the word "abomination" meant the same thing as "spoiled".[4]

Matthew 1:22 — 7:14) fully understood this as applying to the virgin birth of Christ is irrelevant. God's great prophets did not always know the true meaning of the words God gave them. Peter did not know the full meaning of what he prophesied on Pentecost (Acts 2:38,39); and a miracle was required later (Acts 10) to convince Peter that the Gentiles should be permitted entry into the church. See 1 Peter 1:11,12. In this verse, Matthew uses for the first time an expression found ten times in his gospel

Matthew 21:42 — Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner; This was from the Lord, And it is marvelous in our eyes? Christ quoted Psalms 118:22ff. The example of a rejected stone becoming the chief stone was founded on historical fact. Dean Plumptre said: The illustration seems to have been drawn from one of the stones, quarried, hewn, and marked, away from the site of the temple, which

Matthew 22:4 — second epoch of the kingdom, that is, after the resurrection and ascension.[1] Two things support Trench's view: (1) God was willing to overlook the first blunt rejection of Christ (even his crucifixion), attributing it to ignorance (Acts 3:17). (2) Also, the Jews continued to have a priority in hearing the gospel for a long while after Pentecost, as indicated by Paul's motto, "To the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16). The marvelous solicitation and tenderness of the apostolic preaching,

Matthew 5:3 — all necessary and desirable blessing. The poor in spirit are the opposite of the proud, conceited, arrogant and disdainful. Only the poor in spirit can enter God's kingdom. Others will never feel their need nor know their poverty until too late. (2) Another conception of the poor in spirit is seen in the account of this beatitude by Luke (Luke 6:20), "Blessed are ye poor." Dummelow expressed it thus, "A Christian, whether rich or poor, must have the spirit of poverty, he must possess his wealth

Matthew 7:1 — composed of miscellaneous exhortations and is not easily conformable to any formal outline. Judge not that ye be not judged. (Matthew 7:1) The word "judge" in this place is translated from a Greek word, [@krino], also found in such passages as John 12:48; Acts 17:31; and 2 Timothy 4:1, indicating that the type of judging forbidden in this place is that of presuming to determine salvation, or the lack of it, in others. Not even Christ did this while on earth. "I came not to judge the world

Mark 6:14 — reign thus spanned the life and public ministry of Jesus: From a family characterized by intrigue and violence, "he appears as a sensual, cunning, capricious, cruel, weak, unscrupulous, superstitious, despotic prince (Matthew 14:9; Luke 3:19; 13:31,32)."[18] It may well be doubted that this Herod believed in the resurrection of the dead; but a guilty conscience is a strong persuader, and his fearfully guilty heart shuddered at the thought that perhaps our Lord was a reincarnation of John the Baptist. Herod

2 Samuel 13:37 — time this grief was diminished, and David's heart once more longed for the return of Absalom. As Matthew Henry expressed it, "Time wore off David's grief for Amnon, but it also wore off entirely too much of his detestation of Absalom's terrible sin.[29] This final little paragraph is difficult, and scholars tell us there are imperfections in the text; "But the sense must be that David gradually became resigned to Amnon's death and anxious to see Absalom again."[30] Keil seriously questioned this

2 Samuel 6:17 — peace-offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts, and distributed among all the people, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people departed, each to his house." "He blessed the people in the name of the Lord" (2 Samuel 6:18). Here is further evidence of David's acting in the capacity of a priest of God. When the ark was housed among the Philistines, it brought death and destruction, but in the midst of Israel, God's representative in the person of King

2 Samuel 8:13 — Sea."[17] Two great victories of the Israelites were won in this valley. In addition to this one, "Two centuries later, Amaziah king of Judah defeated another 10,000 Edomites and captured Sela."[18] "David slew eighteen thousand of the Edomites" (2 Samuel 8:13). The avid seekers of `contradictions' or `discrepancies' are diligent to point out that David is here said to have slain those Edomites, but that 1 Chronicles 18:13 ascribes the victory to Abishai, and that 1 Kings 11:15-16